Magnets
by uniqueinkblots
Summary: FutureFicAU!Peddie. Eddie is one of the lucky few who stumbled into a fantastic career. As a successful ophthalmologist, he's trained to administer eye exams and surgeries. What he's not trained to deal with is the force of nature that is Patricia Williamson. She's definitely his colleague and she's kind of become his friend too. What's scaring him is that she might be even more.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:**

Hi friends! Happy New Year's Eve! I was going to post this tomorrow morning but I got around to editing the prologue this afternoon so I thought I'd go ahead and publish. The cool thing about this fic is it's actually finished. It hasn't been edited but it's completely written. As of now it's only 10 chapters (Peddie future fic AU) but I miiight end up changing the ending so that it's longer if the reception to this is positive and if I think the storyline calls for it. (I know I fell off the face of the earth for a while so I understand if people aren't particularly interested but just incase.)

I named this "Magnets" in the spirit of opposites attract and all that. It can be argued that Eddie and Patricia are more similar than they are different but that's ok - they're plenty different as well so we're going to stick with this title because I'm fail at naming things. Please excuse me, I'm not likely to improve. Lost cause!

As of now I will be updating twice a week: on Tuesdays and Fridays. The whole thing will be up in about 5 weeks time. That's a promise I can actually keep this time since the writing process is complete.

Welcome to 2014 - hope everyone's had an incredible year! Here's to another great one :)

**Disclaimer: **House of Anubis belongs to Nickelodeon, not me.

* * *

**PROLOGUE: **

"Nice work!" Eddie praised. "You're all set with the contact lenses, Mia. Take those home and give it a trial run. Your mom is going to schedule an appointment for next week and I'll check in with you and see how they feel. If it's working out, we'll order a year's worth of monthly lenses. Sound good?"

His four o'clock appointment beamed. "Sounds perfect. No more glasses, right?"

"Not quite, Mia," he warned. "I don't want you wearing those contact lenses for more than 10-12 hours a day, especially in the beginning. Follow the schedule I gave you for the first month until your eyes adjust. Stick to glasses in the evening when you're not at school or out with friends or anything like that. We don't want you straining your eyes."

The young teenage nodded in acknowledgement, a wistful expression on her face. "I'm not allowed to go out all that much so that won't be a problem. I'm only 13."

Eddie smiled gently and herded her out of the small examination room. It was filled with a combination of motivational and informational health posters and occasionally the bright colors were headache inducing. "You're about to start the best part of your life, I promise. Being a teenager is awesome."

"For sure!" she enthused, before rushing forward to her mother, new contact lens case clutched in her hand. "Mom, look!"

Mia's mother laughed at her daughter's excitement and walked to the front desk to schedule a follow up appointment. "Thanks, Dr. Miller," she said. "Mia has been looking forward to this for months. We'll see you next week to make sure everything is ok."

Eddie blinked in surprise before quickly schooling his expression into something more blank. He managed a small smile and waved. "Sure. Have a good weekend." He absentmindedly dusted off his doctor's coat and dipped his head to his chin in an effort to see his name that was stitched into the upper corner.

A warm chuckle made him turn around. His colleague, Fabian, was leaning in the doorframe of the examination rooms opposite the reception area, knowingly smirking at him. "You're never going to get used to being called doctor," he explained in response to Eddie's questioning glance.

"Oh that." Eddie had been wondering why his old friend was laughing. "Leave me alone," he complained. "Believe me. I never thought I'd become a doctor. It wasn't the original plan."

"Really?" Fabian asked curiously, motioning for Eddie to follow him into the small break room at the back of the clinic. He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water before sinking onto one of the couches. "Med school isn't something people go through on a whim. You don't just wake up and say, _hey, I think I'm going to be a doctor. _You have to really want it, man. How did you end up here then?"

Eddie shrugged. He often forgot Fabian didn't know much about his past. They had only met after both landing a job at one of the many eye clinics in the area: London Vision Associates. Since they got along so well, it felt like he had known Fabian all his life, but in reality it had only been just over a year.

"I did my undergrad in the states and there are all kind of distribution requirements over there. I started off as a computer science major but I had to take at least two general sciences and…I don't know how it happened to be honest. I aced bio and chem and not the classes that counted towards my major and before I knew it I was a premed student, taking all those premed courses. I'm actually a biology major. It was just easy to me and I've never been one to work hard."

Eddie was careful not to point out that he had attended medical school in Britain because he knew that Fabian would only have more questions. He was naturally inquisitive, and normally Eddie didn't mind, but he didn't want to get into all the family dynamics that played a role in him crossing the Atlantic for the second half of his education. Too complicated and too personal.

"Never one to work hard…says the guy that went to med school," Fabian pointed out with amusement. "That's pretty interesting though. But computer science? I can't see it."

"The world always needs more programmers, dude," Eddie replied, smirking at his friend's observation. It was technically true. It wasn't usual for a doctors to describe themselves as lazy; it kind of went against the years and years of schooling they suffered. "And have you ever seen what the Facebook office looks like and other big places like that? It's more of a playground than a workspace. Plus it would have been nice to have the ability to hack people…it would have have made me feel like a mastermind criminal or something."

Fabian grinned. "And instead you slaved away at medical school and learned how to save lives. Young, good-looking doctor, years shy of 30 who helps people for a living - how disappointing."

Eddie found himself laughing in agreement. "It's a real bummer," he played along. "Don't get ahead of yourself though. This is no hospital ER."

"In this country it's called the A&E. Get with the program, you crazy American. Not to mention, you _do_ spend plenty of time at the hospital. You're not just an optometrist, you're an ophthalmologist. Not only do you perform surgery on your own patients in cases of extreme conditions, you also work for the local hospital's vision center."

Fabian shot his friend an incredulous look. Eddie was so laid-back that it was easy to forget that he had climbed the ranks and was actually a high profile doctor in his field. While Fabian was an optometrist, he was no ophthalmologist. He was not qualified to perform surgeries.

"Thanks for the overview of my career, man," Eddie rubbed the back of his neck, feeling oddly embarrassed. He always felt vaguely ashamed that the road to becoming a doctor had never seemed like a big deal to him like every other medical professional he knew. He was just living his life.

Fabian fiddled with his smartphone, no longer paying attention to Eddie. "Quick question…is it lame to text a girl and ask her out? For Valentine's?"

"Pick up the phone and call her," Eddie snorted. "We're not in school anymore."

Fabian got up from the couch and stretched. "Good advice, thanks. I'll call after work."

"So?" Eddie stood as well, snagging a bag of chips from the cabinet. "Who's the girl?"

His colleague blushed. "Her name is Nina. She's actually American too. We met through a mutual friend…Alfie? You might have seen him around, he stops by sometimes. He's a friend from college."

"You have another American friend?" Eddie asked, genuinely surprised and slightly amused. "Don't ever replace me."

"A pretty girl versus an average colleague…you'd lose in a heartbeat," Fabian joked.

"Who are you calling average?" Eddie demanded through a mouthful of potato chips. He was about to say something else witty because he found it hilarious when Fabian struggled with words and so far he was on his game so Eddie wanted to catch him unawares. "Hey, so - "

He was interrupted by the arrival of their supervisor and head doctor, Dr. James Levine. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," the elder man said, pushing up his glasses that threatened to slide off his nose. "Got a minute?"

"Plenty of time, sir," Fabian responded. "It's a slow afternoon." He poked his head out of the break room and craned his neck to double-check that there was no one in the waiting room. Amber the receptionist would have paged one of them if that were the case but he was just making sure.

"I noticed that too," Eddie said in agreement. "Not a lot of appointments scheduled for this afternoon."

James leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "No today, no. But in general we've had a sharp increase in number of people we're seeing. We have a lot of new patients in addition to retaining our former ones. We're actually frequently overbooked."

"That's great though, isn't it?" Eddie asked with a frown. He sensed a "but" coming.

"It's excellent," James assured them. "What isn't so great is the fact that we don't have enough doctors on hand to keep up with the flow of patients. This afternoon is pretty much an exception. Generally speaking, we've been swamped. This practice is successful but it's also small. I'm willing to expand but we're most definitely going to need to hire a new doctor. We're going to have to start that process soon."

Fabian looked as puzzled as Eddie. "That's fine though. I'm still not seeing the problem. I think we're all willing to see the practice grow."

"I have several interviews lined up," James began. "But I accidentally scheduled one of our more promising candidates an interview for around 5pm next Thursday. It's her availability preference. If I must, I'll reschedule, but I made a commitment so I'm reluctant to move the interview. She's actually the daughter of an old friend of mine. Regardless of the job decision, I'd like the practice to make a good impression."

"I still don't see the issue," Eddie said blankly, flipping through the apps on his phone in search for the calendar. "What's so special about next Thursday?"

A flash of understanding crossed Fabian's face. "That's Valentine's Day, isn't it?"

"Yes it is. And I promised my wife I'd take her out," James bemoaned. "I know it's short notice and it's not exactly fair to ask but is there any chance either one of you are free to conduct the interview? You two are essential to the practice and while I recognize that neither of you conducted the interviews in hiring our nurses or other staff, I still trust both of you with the responsibility. It shouldn't be too difficult. I trust your judgement."

Fabian winced, a look of regret on his face. "I would love to, but I think I'm going to have plans. I know it's a little presemptous for me to say, but I think I'm probably going to have a date that night." He hung his head and sighed. He was the kind of person who liked to help others and take on other responsibilities so he felt terrible when someone specifically asked for something and he couldn't offer his assistance.

"Don't worry about it," Eddie cut in. "I'm free."

"You are?" James asked. "Thursdays are the one day of the week we close a couple hours earlier than usual regardless of Valentine's Day, so you're not responsible for being free. I understand if you have plans."

"I don't," Eddie assured him.

"No hot date?" Fabian teased.

"I have to say, I am impressed with your bravado today," Eddie offered his friend a high five. "You're nearly never this bold with your jokes."

Fabian smacked his forehead. "I know. Was I too rude? I had a feeling I might have been. It's just that I'm pretty sure I'm high on this blasted cold medicine. I think it might be NyQuil instead of DayQuil which is disastrous. I - "

"Cool, it's fine." Eddie punched his friend's shoulder in appreciation. "It's nice to see you have a sense of humor underneath all those manners."

He turned back to Dr. Levine and offered him his hand. "Seriously, sir, I'm happy to conduct the interview. I really have no plans. February 14th is meant to be spent with the person you're in a relationship with _or_ someone you really care about," he threw Fabian a reassuring look who had momentarily frozen. Nina wasn't his girlfriend yet and the last thing Eddie want to do was make his friend second guess his decision to ask out the girl of his dreams.

"And I don't have anyone in my life that meets those qualifications so yeah, I'm available," he finished.

James gratefully shook his hand. "It's settled then."

Eddie grabbed a pen off the table in the break room and one of the many sticky notepads lying around. "Just a second. What's the applicant's name?"

"Patricia Williamson," James answered. "Thanks again, Eddie. Much appreciated."

Eddie simply smiled at his boss and tucked the piece of paper in his pocket.

Little did he know that the note he had pocketed contained the name of the woman who was about to turn his life upside down.

* * *

**A/N:**

No actual Patricia appearance which I know might have been a little disappointing but I figured I'd leave her out so that the prologue would spark more interest.

Please tell me what you guys think! I always love hearing from you, and the last time we shared a chaptered story experience together was back in the days of "Tangible Happiness" which is long gone. I'm excited to interact with you all again - hope this first chapter was enjoyable for you :)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:**

Thank you for all the positive feedback! All the reviews were very much appreciated. It was so nice to see some familiar names :)

I had a feeling a lot of people would question Eddie being a doctor. I admit it's a little unorthodox but I think that's the beauty of future fics! As long as the character retain their personality and innate characterization it's acceptable to let them grow a little, even if it means having a more ambitious career than expected.

By the way, I'm not a medical student and while there are a couple of doctors in my family, none of them are ophthalmologists so no guarantee that the medical stuff is correct or realistic. I tried not to go in too much detail though so hopefully any inaccuracies will be avoided simply because I didn't bother to mention it.

Hope you like all like this chapter - happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **House of Anubis belongs to Nickelodeon, not me.

* * *

He was running an hour behind schedule.

Eddie rushed into the locker room and immediately began the process of peeling his scrubs off. The cataract surgery had been scheduled for 1pm but there was a delay in preparing the operation room (a random intern had probably screwed up or something) and by the time both patient and doctor were ready, it was almost 2pm. It was a standard procedure and once they got started, it hadn't taken too long, but the fact remained that Eddie was going to be late for that stupid interview he had promised to conduct.

At the time he had been more than eager to help out, but that was before he knew about the forecast for a huge snowstorm. Eddie had been running around windowless hospital rooms all day, but according to some colleagues, the snow had started coming down around noon and was expected to continue throughout the night.

That was kind of annoying. All he wanted to do was go home and binge watch television shows on Netflix or something. The fact that it was Valentine's Day was beginning to hit him and was oddly depressed about the whole thing. Hadn't he earned an evening of sulking?

He pulled a t-shirt over his head and threw on a hoodie over it before glancing down and letting out a huge sigh. He had expected to leave the hospital by 3pm so that he could arrive at the practice with plenty of time to change into business casual. That wasn't likely to happen now, seeing as it was doubtful if we would even make the interview on time.

Eddie gave his worn jeans one last lingering look of disappointment before throwing his coat on and haphazardly wrapping a scarf around his neck. God he looked ridiculous. He made a mental note to ask Amber to teach him how to properly tie a scarf. He would have done it already except he knew that would have ended up him receiving the history of neckwear or something equally horrifying and time-consuming.

The air outside was frigid and powdery snow dusted his head within seconds. He struggled to pull the hood of his sweatshirt over his head through the coat, but in the process nearly slipped on black ice.

"I hate my life," he grumbled, glancing at his watch before hurriedly pulling his gloves on. "It. is. so. cold."

As he stuck out his hand to hail a cab, he made another mental note to stop talking to himself in public. He was beginning to get weird looks.

When he eventually burst through the doors of the practice, it was 5:15pm. Quite frankly, he was pretty proud of himself. He thought he would be a lot more late than this but the cab driver had thankfully been more than eager to speed.

There was a woman with long brown curls seated in the waiting room area, casually flipping through a magazine. Her coat and scarf was completely dry and neatly folded on the chair next to her. Her hair wasn't mussed by the snow and quite frankly, she looked comfortable.

Freezing cold and shivering, he resented her almost instantly.

"Patricia Williamson?" he asked, breathless from taking the stairs two at a time.

"That's me." The woman smiled a little nervously and stood, offering him her hand. "It's not very professional for the interviewer to be late, is it?" Her smile widened. It was a borderline smirk even.

He shook her hand with an absentminded frown and something inside him kind of snapped. He was cold, wet, starving, and the fact that his interviewee was being cheeky with him was not amusing to him. "Yes, well. Have you looked outside? It's snowing. Hard."

The weird combination of smile and smirk disappeared and Patricia glanced up at him with wide, surprised green orbs. "Yeah I know. I was um..just joking?"

"Well that's not very professional," Eddie snapped, parroting her words back.

Patricia physically took a step back and shot him a challenging look filled with attitude. "You know what's not professional? Your clothing." She waved a hand at his snow soaked jeans and old green sweatshirt, her gaze filled with judgement.

Eddie knew he was the first one to be rude, but he was still a little taken back by her boldness. He gaped at her for a moment before matching her glare. "Not that it's any of your business, but I had to rush here from the hospital. I had a surgery that went overtime and then I didn't have my professional clothes on me and…" he trailed off and frowned. "You know what, never mind. Forget my clothes. You're dressed the part so that will do. Let's just get this over with, okay?"

Sensing his angry energy fading, Patricia shrugged. She wasn't exactly in the position to argue as much as she wanted to put this joker in his place. In fact, she had probably already seriously damaged her chances.

"Okay," she said softly.

Having absolutely no experience at interviewing, Eddie has tossed Patricia questions similar to that of what he had been asked. He also threw some generic ones that he found online…god, he hoped it wasn't obvious how clueless he was.

"And finally, do you have any questions for me?" Eddie asked. Patricia stared at him blankly. "Me as in…I represent the practice," he clarified. "Do you have any questions about London Vision Associates?"

"Oh. No, I don't. Thank you though."

Throughout the interview, Patricia had remained polite and perfectly professional, trying to regain some normalcy.

"Well then. I think we're done here." Eddie tentatively smiled at her, feeling like a complete jerk. After warming up a bit, some of the grouchiness had faded and it was beginning to hit him…how unprofessional and rude he had been. "We have all of your contact information so we'll be in touch. Thank you for your time."

"Thank you," Patricia murmured.

She met his gaze one final time before silently bundling up for the outdoors. Eddie found her silence oddly disappointing. While she had been on her best behavior during the duration of the actual interview, it was her initial flare of spunky personality that had caught his interest. He found himself wanting to fill the silence with words. (Usually he was way smarter and let things be. Awkward silences were a part of life and he embraced that.)

He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry about before," he said suddenly. "You were just making a joke and I kind of lost it and things went weird from there."

"So weird!" Patricia agreed. "I'm actually really glad you mentioned that. I feel kind of bad about the whole thing, it was just not mature..."

"I feel bad about it too!"

"Oh of course you do," Patricia said neutrally, folding her arms to conserve heat. It was irritating how empty the street was. It was a main road and she needed a cab!

"What do you mean?" Eddie asked suspiciously, stuffing his hands in his pockets. His gloves were soaked beyond belief.

"Of course you feel bad," Patricia clarified. "Because you started it in the first place."

_"Are you kidding me?" _Eddie demanded. "No, _you _started it, you - "

"Oh look! A cab. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to go home because I don't really want to have this conversation, no offense."

Eddie glared. "Whenever someone says 'no offense' it means they're being offensive. Plus, what if I wanted to take this cab?"

"You're a gentleman so you'll let me take it," Patricia scoffed. Eddie began to protest but Patricia raised a hand. "Or are you telling me you're not a gentleman?"

"I'm a gentleman," Eddie muttered grudgingly, grumpily opening the cab door and placing a hand on the small of her back and guiding her into the cab.

Patricia looked genuinely surprised. "Thanks," she said softly, offering him a hesitant grin. "No hard feelings?"

"No hard feelings," he echoed. "And uh, Happy Valentines Day, or whatever."

He heard a muffled "you too" behind the closing door.

Well…that was bizarre.

The following morning James knocked lightly on the door of Eddie's office before stepping inside. "Eddie, I took a look at these interview notes and they're great! Sounds like you asked all the right questions and quite frankly, I'm rather impressed with her answers. Don't you think?"

"Yeah, she's well qualified," Eddie admitted.

"So how did the interview go? For you, I mean. Were you comfortable?"

Eddie winced as his mini argument with Patricia flashed in his mind. Fighting with her had made him feel alive but the fact remained that he hadn't been acting his best. "It was great," he said hurriedly. "Loved it."

"I was hoping you would say that!" James exclaimed. "So how do you feel about conducting the rest of the interviews?"

"Uh…sure?"

James clapped him on the shoulder and gave him an approving nod before briskly exiting Eddie's office.

Which is how Eddie ended up hunched over his desk one week later, groaning into a chinese takeaway box.

"What is it?" Fabian was cheerfully munching on his shrimp fried rice. He had offered to keep Eddie company while he went through the notes and chose the new doctor.

"We have to hire her." Eddie scowled at his notes and angrily let his pen clatter to the floor.

"Who?"

"Patricia Williamson! She's the most qualified. Her credentials are solid. _And _she's the only ophthalmologist out of all that applied. The rest are optometrists. Between her and I, we could really solidify our connection with the hospital."

"That's great then! Sounds like you've made a decision. " Fabian said. "Why so grumpy?"

"She's annoying," Eddie scowled. "She like…talks back and stuff."

Fabian smiled broadly. "Well I look forward to meeting her then. She sounds interesting."

"Shut up and eat your food."

* * *

**A/N:**

Gah. I wasn't really satisfied with this chapter. The idea was to show that there's a certain argumentative dynamic between Patricia and Eddie but that it has the potential to be playful. I think I semi succeeded but something was just off, you know? It's a little shorter than I wanted it to be but it didn't make sense for me to introduce anything else because then it would have been too long, etc.

I hope you guys still liked it though! Things will start picking up, I promise :)


End file.
